Schaefer Excavating

About Schaefer Excavating

Ringgold County's courthouse sits in the middle of Mount Ayr's square, and the hills roll away from it in every direction — steeper and closer together than most of Iowa, closer to the country south toward the Missouri line than to the flat ground further north. Schaefer Excavating brings the same equipment it uses to move earth on those hills to moving snow off them in winter, clearing driveways and lanes that climb and dip enough to make an ordinary plow pass tricky. A storm coming up out of Missouri tends to hit the south-facing slopes around town first and hardest, and the crew reads the terrain before it reads the forecast, working the steepest drives early while the snow is still loose. Around the square and through the residential streets radiating off it, the same equipment handles a flat in-town drive with an easier touch. It's practical, ground-suited work in a county built on hills rather than section-line flatness.